Johnson said that $700,000 will be set aside in an endowment "to ensure that Jubilee will be there for the next 50 years."

Jubilee can accommodate 20 women in the facility, with seven more women served in a leased house. Because that house will be sold, the 12,886-square-foot main facility will be reconfigured, with seven rooms added so the program still can accommodate 27 women.

The 48-year-old building also will get a new roof and upgraded plumbing, earthquake retrofitting and other work.

Most of the residents are "the working poor," Johnson said. "That's a requirement to live here. You're working, going to school or volunteering in the community."

One of the residents, Cheryl, said she had worked steadily in secretarial jobs for about 30 years when she was laid off, couldn't find work, went bankrupt and suffered from manic depression.

"A lot of women here are older," said Cheryl, 55, who declined to give her last name. "They had been very stable previously but had something happen in their life."